Joey Gallo (baseball)

Joseph Nicholas Gallo (born November 19, 1993) is an American professional baseball outfielder, first baseman, and third baseman for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2015 and was an All-Star in 2019.

Joey Gallo
Gallo with the Rangers in 2017
Texas Rangers – No. 13
Outfielder / First baseman / Third baseman
Born: (1993-11-19) November 19, 1993
Henderson, Nevada
Bats: Left Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 2, 2015, for the Texas Rangers
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Batting average.208
Home runs120
Runs batted in262
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Early years

Gallo attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.[1] As a senior, he was the Nevada Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year and a High School All-American by MaxPreps, ESPNHS and USA Today.[2][3][4][5] He hit a Nevada high school record 67 career home runs in 446 at bats, and during his senior year of high school he had a .509 batting average with 21 home runs and 80 runs batted in (RBIs) in 114 at bats.[6][7]

Gallo signed a National Letter of Intent to attend Louisiana State University (LSU) and play college baseball for the LSU Tigers.[8]

Professional career

The Texas Rangers selected Gallo in the first round, with the 39th overall selection, in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.[9][10] Rather than enroll at LSU, Gallo signed with the Rangers for a $2.25 million signing bonus.[8]

Gallo with the Hickory Crawdads in 2013

Gallo started his professional career with the Arizona League Rangers, where he hit .293/.435/.733 with 18 home runs and 52 runs batted in in 150 at bats over 43 games, and was named a Post-Season AZL All Star, a Topps Short-Season/Rookie All Star, and the Topps AZL Player of the Year.[11] The 18 home runs were an Arizona League record.[12] He was named the Arizona League MVP.[13][14] He was promoted to the Spokane Indians of the Class A Short-Season Northwest League, hitting .214/.343/.464 with four home runs and 26 strikeouts in 56 at bats in 16 games.[11]

Prior to the 2013 season, Gallo was the Rangers 10th-best prospect according to Baseball America.[15] He played the season with the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League, leading the league with 38 home runs and 165 strikeouts in 392 at bats, and was named a Mid-Season All Star and a Post-Season All Star.[16][11] He became the first teenager since Dick Simpson in 1962 to hit 40 home runs in a minor league season.[17] Between two minor league teams, he batted .251/.338/.623 with 40 home runs and 172 strikeouts in 411 at bats. Gallo won the Joe Bauman Home Run Award for hitting the most home runs in minor league baseball for the 2013 season.[18] Over the offseason, he worked out with Troy Tulowitzki and Jason Giambi at the Philippi Sports Institute in Las Vegas.[19]

Gallo started the 2014 season with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League, batting .323/.463/.735 and leading the league with 21 home runs as he struck out 64 times in 189 at bats and was named a Mid-Season All Star and a Post-Season All Star as well as the Carolina League MVP, and was promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Class AA Texas League in June where he was named a Post-Season All Star, a Baseball America High Class A All Star, a Baseball America Minor League All Star, and a Topps Class A All Star.[20][21][11] In July, he played in the All-Star Futures Game, where he was named the MVP of the game after hitting a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning.[22] Between the two minor league teams he batted .271/.394/.615 with 42 home runs and 179 strikeouts in 439 at bats.[11]

2015

Gallo began the 2015 season with Frisco, and was named a Mid-Season Texas South All Star.[11] On June 1, the Rangers promoted Gallo to the major leagues.[23] In his first major league game, June 2, Gallo hit his first major league home run and drove in 4 runs (becoming the first Ranger to achieve four RBIs in an MLB debut game), going 3-4 in the game. He also had a single and a double in the game.[24] On June 5, Gallo earned his first MLB Golden Sombrero against the Kansas City Royals, making him the earliest to accomplish this in a Ranger career.[25] On June 30, 2015, Gallo was optioned to Triple A to make room for Josh Hamilton. In the minors, between two minor league teams he batted .240/.342/.520 with 23 home runs and 139 strikeouts in 321 at bats. In 2015 in the majors he batted .204/.301/.417 with 6 home runs and 57 strikeouts in 108 at bats.[11]

2016
Gallo in 2016

In 2016, he spent the majority of the season in the minors, appearing in only 17 games for the Rangers. In 2016 in 25 at bats in the majors he had 19 strikeouts and one hit, a home run.[26] With Round Rock, he batted .240/.367/.529 with 25 home runs and 150 strikeouts in 359 at bats.[11]

2017

In 2017, Gallo won a roster spot out of spring training and played multiple positions all season for the Rangers, finishing batting .209/.333/.537 (9th in the American League) with 196 strikeouts (2nd), 11.0 at bats per home run (2nd), 41 home runs (3rd), and 80 RBIs in 449 at bats.[26] For the season, he had the highest fly ball percentage of all major league hitters (54.2%), the highest percentage of hard-hit batted balls in the majors (46.4%), and the lowest contact percentage on his swings in the major leagues (59.1%).[27][28][29] He hit the third-longest home run in MLB in 2017, at 490 feet.[30]

2018

In 2018, Gallo batted .206/.312/.498 with 12.5 at bats per home runs (2nd), and hit 40 home runs (3rd) with 207 strikeouts (3rd), 74 walks (10th), and 92 RBIs in 500 at bats over 148 games. For the second consecutive year, he had the lowest contact percentage on his swings in the major leagues (61.7%).[31]

2019

Gallo was named the AL Player of the Week for April 15-21, after hitting .478 (11-23) with 4 home runs and 11 RBI over 6 games.[32] On May 8, Gallo hit his 100th career home run versus Nick Kingham of the Pirates.[33] He became the fastest player in American League history to reach 100 home runs, doing so in his 377th career game, a record since surpassed by Gary Sanchez, who did it in 355 games.[33] Gallo also set a MLB record, by recording the fewest career singles (93) at the time of reaching the 100 home run mark.[33] On May 31, Gallo hit his first career grand slam off of Danny Duffy of the Kansas City Royals.[34] Gallo was placed on the injured list from June 2 to June 25 with a left oblique strain.[35] Gallo was selected as an American League reserve outfielder for the 2019 Major League Baseball All-Star Game,[36] and hit a home run off of Will Smith in his lone at-bat.[37] Gallo was placed on the injured list and underwent surgery to remove a broken right hamate bone on July 25,[38] ending his season. Gallo finished the 2019 campaign hitting .253/.389/.598/.986 with 22 home runs and 49 RBI over 297 plate appearances in 70 games.[39]

2020

On July 6, 2020, it was announced that Gallo had tested positive for COVID-19,[40] despite being asymptomatic.[41] At the end of the season, he won AL Gold Glove award as right fielder.[42] He finished the shortened season batting .181 and hit 10 homeruns. [43]

Personal life

Gallo grew up in Las Vegas and played on youth baseball teams with Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant.[44][45] Mike Bryant, Kris' father, was one of Gallo's coaches growing up.[45] Gallo's father, Tony, appeared in three games for the GCL Expos in 1974.[46][45]

References
  1. Brewer, Ray. "Gorman baseball player Joey Gallo has big bat, talent to merit first-round draft pick". Lasvegassun.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  2. Rohrbach, Ben. "Nevada Baseball POY: Joey Gallo". Espn.go.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  3. Kevin Askeland (July 4, 2012). "Joey Gallo leads 2012 MaxPreps All-American Baseball Team". Maxpreps.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  4. "ESPNHS 2012 Baseball All-Americans". Espn.go.com. June 21, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  5. Jim Halley, USA TODAY (January 14, 2013). "Tampa Jesuit'S Lance Mccullers Jr. Leads All-Usa Baseball Team". Usatodayhss.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  6. Davison, Drew. "Home run ball has gotten Rangers prospect Joey Gallo plenty of love". Star-telegram.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  7. Joey Gallo's Baseball Stats | MaxPreps
  8. Dabe, Christopher (June 2, 2015). "Former LSU signee Joey Gallo homers in major league debut". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  9. RunThisTown (Matt Philips). "Bishop Gorman's Joey Gallo goes 39th overall to the Texas Rangers". Lasvegassun.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  10. "Rangers draft high school power on Day 1". Texas.rangers.mlb.com. May 24, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  11. Joey Gallo Stats, Highlights, Bio | MiLB.com Stats | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball
  12. "Fresh out of high school, prospect Joey Gallo puts on Texas Rangers uniform for first time". Rangersblog.dallasnews.com. March 16, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  13. Wild, Danny (August 29, 2012). "Rangers' Gallo named AZL's best". Milb.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  14. Boedeker, Adam (November 6, 2012). "Gallo Takes MVP Honors in Arizona". Nbcdfw.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  15. Eddy, Matt (December 5, 2012). "Baseball America 2013 Texas Rangers top 10 prospects". Baseballamerica.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  16. 2013 South Atlantic League Batting Leaders | Baseball-Reference.com
  17. Seiner, Jake (August 31, 2013). "Gallo makes history with 40th homer". Milb.com. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  18. "Late charge earns Gallo Bauman Award: Rangers slugger edges Astros' Springer in season's final week". MiLB. September 5, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  19. "Slugging prospect Gallo works out with two All-Stars | texasrangers.com: News". Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  20. 2014 Carolina League Batting Leaders | Baseball-Reference.com
  21. "Gallo, Gonzalez promoted to Double-A Frisco". Texas Rangers. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  22. "Joey Gallo earns Futures Game MVP honors after leading Team USA to victory - HardballTalk". nbcsports.com. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  23. "Grant: Why Rangers feel time is right for Joey Gallo to join big club". dallasnews.com. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  24. Sullivan, T.R. (June 2, 2015). "Gallo homers in second big league at-bat". MLB.com. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  25. Grant, Evan (June 6, 2015). "Why Rangers aren't concerned about Joey Gallo's first 'Golden Sombrero'". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on August 9, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  26. Joey Gallo Stats | Baseball-Reference.com
  27. Major League Leaderboards » 2017 » Batters » Plate Discipline Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball
  28. Major League Leaderboards » 2018 » Batters » Batted Ball Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball
  29. Major League Leaderboards » 2017 » Batters » Batted Ball Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball
  30. Statcast | MLB.com
  31. Major League Leaderboards » 2018 » Batters » Plate Discipline Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball
  32. David Adler (April 22, 2019). "Yelich, Gallo power way to POTW honors". MLB.com. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  33. Crouse, Jake (May 8, 2019). "Weird record: Gallo has 100 HRs, 93 singles". MLB.com. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  34. "Joey Gallo Connects For First Career Grand Slam As Rangers Defeat Royals 6-2". CBS DFW. May 31, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  35. James Schmehl (June 25, 2019). "Joey Gallo back from IL, batting fifth". MLB.com. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  36. Dawn Klemish (June 30, 2019). "Career years earn Gallo, Minor 1st All-Star nods". MLB.com. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  37. T.R. Sullivan (July 9, 2019). "Gallo swats record blast on first pitch he sees". MLB.com. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  38. T.R. Sullivan (July 25, 2019). "Gallo headed for surgery to fix hamate bone". MLB.com. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  39. Evan Grant (September 20, 2019). "Joey Gallo moved to 60-day IL, Rangers don't expect him to play again this season". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  40. Blum, Sam (July 6, 2020). "Rangers OF Joey Gallo tests positive for COVID-19". The Dallas Morning News.
  41. "Asymptomatic All-Star slugger Gallo tests positive for virus". AP NEWS. July 6, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  42. "2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award® Winners Announced". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  43. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gallojo01.shtml. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  44. Joey Hayden (April 17, 2018). "Joey Gallo's career as a catcher ended because a young Bryce Harper once made him cry". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  45. Tyler Maun (April 9, 2015). "Rise to top a family affair for Bryant, Gallo". MiLB.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  46. "Anthony Gallo". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
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